Chasing the scent of Love, Truth, Beauty, and Mirth, wherever it may lead.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Where's the Outrage?

A Guest Column

Steve Baggarly
of the Norfolk, VA,
Catholic Worker brought the following article to my attention. I reproduce it here
because it so concisely presents in clear layman’s terms the enormity of the
financial injustice plaguing our country and our world. It’s in light of these
abuses that we must see how corrupt a monster the American capitalist economy
has become when politicians put their corporate allies on the public dole while
denying basic services to the general population where need is ever-increasing.

What could they be
thinking? Are they thinking at all? Read and decide for yourself. But for my
part, I’d rather be a citizen than a consumer. I’d rather live in a country
that values and nurtures its people’s creativity and talents rather than limiting
access to the chosen few for whom it seems no amount of wealth can ever be
enough.

“Simplify, simplify,
simplify!” Henry David Thoreau cried out to his readers in Walden. Austerity
hawks seem to think that should start with the poor. But I doubt that’s what
Thoreau meant, nor what anyone would mean who’s guided by even a rudimentary moral
compass.

But
enough from me, read the article. The author, Bill Quigley, is a law
professor and Director of the Law Clinic and the GillisLongPovertyLawCenter at LoyolaUniversity in New
Orleans and is also Associate Legal
Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. The article originally appeared
on the Huffington Post website on January
14, 2014.

Ten Examples of Welfare for
Corporations and the Ultra-Rich

by Bill Quigley

There are thousands of tax breaks and subsidies for the
rich and corporations provided by federal, state and local governments, but
these 10 will give a taste.

1. State and local subsidies to corporations: An
excellent New York Times study by
Louise Story calculated that state and local government provide at least $80
billion in subsidies to corporations. Over 48 big corporations received over
$100 million each. GM was the biggest, at a total of $1.7 billion extracted
from 16 different states, but Shell, Ford and Chrysler all received over $1
billion each. Amazon, Microsoft, Prudential, Boeing and casino companies in Colorado and New
Jersey received well over $200 million
each.

3. Federal tax breaks for corporations: The tax code
gives corporations special tax breaks that have reduced what is supposed to be
a 35-percent tax rate to an actual tax rate of 13 percent, saving these
corporations an additional $200 billion annually, according to the US Government
Accountability Office.

4. Federal tax breaks for wealthy hedge fund managers:
Special tax breaks for hedge fund managers allow them to pay only a 15-percent
rate while the people they earned the money for usually pay a 35-percent rate.
This is the break where the multimillionaire manager pays less of a percentage
in taxes than her secretary. The National Priorities Project estimates this
costs taxpayers $83 billion annually, and 68 percent of those who receive this
special tax break earn more than $462,500 per year (the top 1 percent of
earners).

5. Subsidies to the fast food industry: Research by the
University of Illinois and UC Berkeley documents that taxpayers
pay about $243 billion each year in indirect subsidies to the fast food
industry because they pay wages so low that taxpayers must put up $243 billion
to pay for public benefits for their workers.

6. Mortgage deduction: The home mortgage deduction,
which costs taxpayers $70 billion per year, is a huge subsidy to the real
estate, banking and construction industries. The Center of Budget and
Policy Priorities estimated that
77 percent of the benefit goes to homeowners with incomes over $100,000 per
year.

7. The billions above do not even count the government
bailout of Wall Street, while all parties have done their utmost to tell the
public that they did not need it, that they paid it back or that it was a great
investment. The Atlantic Monthlyestimates that
$7.6 trillion was made available by the Federal Reserve to banks, financial
firms and investors. The Cato Institute estimates (using
government figures) the final costs at $32 to $68 billion, not including the
takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which alone cost more than $180
billion.

8. Each major piece of legislation contains new welfare
for the rich and corporations. The Boston Globeanalyzed the
emergency tax legislation passed by Congress in early 2013 and found it
contained 43 business and energy tax breaks, together worth $67 billion.

9. Huge corporations that engage in criminal or other
wrongful activities protect their leaders from being prosecuted by paying huge
fees or fines to the government. You and I would be prosecuted. These
corporations protect their bosses by paying off the government. For example,
Reuters reported that
JPMorgan Chase, which made a preliminary $13-billion mortgage settlement with
the US
government, is allowed to write off a majority of the deal as tax deductible,
saving the corporation $4 billion.

10. There are thousands of smaller special breaks for
corporations and businesses out there. There is a special subsidy for
corporate jets, which cost taxpayers $3 billion a year. The tax
deduction for second homes costs
$8 billion a year. Fifty billionaires received
taxpayer-funded farm subsidies in the past 20 years.If you want to look at the welfare for the rich and corporations, start with the federal Internal Revenue Code. That is the King James Bible of welfare for the rich and corporations. Special breaks in the tax code are the reason that there are thousands of lobbyists in the halls of Congress, hundreds of lobbyists around each state legislature and tens of thousands of tax lawyers all over the country.